Bui Chu and Vinh Long Catholics mourn the passing of their bishops

Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews / EDA) - Vietnamese Catholics are mourning the death of two bishops, who both died on August 17 last from natural causes. They are Msgr. Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, of the diocese of Bui Chu, in northern Vietnam, and Msgr. Thomas Nguyen Van Tân, the bishop of the diocese of Vinh Long, in the south of the country. Bishop Joseph, 74, died at 4 am for a myocardial infarction, Bishop Thomas, aged 73, died suddenly in the evening, without warning. Only two days before, on August 15, he had celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption.

The two sudden deaths have shocked and saddened the faithful of the diocese of Bui Chu and Vinh Long, and provoked expressions of closeness from the entire Vietnamese Catholic community that is united in prayer. On behalf of the Vietnamese bishops' conference, Msgr. Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon has sent a letter of condolence.

Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tiêm was born September 12, 1938 in the province of Nam Dinh. After studying at the minor seminary of Bui Chu, in 1960 he began his novitiate at the Salesians. In Italy first, later in the Holy Land in Bethlehem he deepened his studies of philosophy and theology. Ordained a priest in 1973, for several years he served in a parish priest before being transferred (in 1995) to the major seminary of Hanoi, where he taught moral theology.